hyperbole
(haɪˈpɜːbəliː)
Also 6 yperbole, hiperbole.
[a. Gr. ὑπερβολή excess (cf. hyperbola), exaggeration; the latter sense is first found in Isocrates and Aristotle. Cf. F. hyperbole (earlier yperbole).]
1. Rhet. A figure of speech consisting in exaggerated or extravagant statement, used to express strong feeling or produce a strong impression, and not intended to be understood literally. b. With a and pl., an instance of this figure.
| 1529 More Dyaloge iv. 110 b/1 By a maner of speking which is among lerned men called yperbole, for the more vehement expressyng of a mater. 1579 Fulke Heskins' Parl. 340 He must note an hyberbole or ouerreaching speach in this sentence. 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 407 Three-pil'd Hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedanticall. 1657 J. Smith Myst. Rhet. 58 Scriptural Examples of Hyperbole..Deut. 9. 4, Cities fenced up to heaven..Joh. 21. 25, The whole world could not contain the books. 1726 Gay Fables i. xviii. 11 Hyperboles, tho' ne'er so great, Will still come short of self-conceit. 1824 L. Murray Eng. Gram. (ed. 5) I. 510 Hyperboles are of two kinds; either such as are employed in description, or such as are suggested by the warmth of passion. 1838 Prescott Ferd. & Is. (1846) I. xi. 439 An Arabic interpreter expatiated, in florid hyperbole, on the magnanimity and princely qualities of the Spanish king. |
b. gen. Excess, extravagance. rare.
| 1652 L. S. People's Liberty xviii. 45 [He] spared him out of an Hyperbole of clemency. 1678 Norris Coll. Misc. (1699) 6 Under the great Hyperbole of Pain He mourns. 1874 H. R. Reynolds John Bapt. iii. §2. 175 They agreed with the Pharisees in their extraordinary regard for the Sabbath, even pressing their rigour to an hyperbole. |
† 2. Geom. = hyperbola. Obs.
(Perh. with e mute, as in F. hyperbole.)
| 1579 Digges Stratiot. 188 Whether..the sayde Curue Arke, be not an Hyperbole. 1716 Douglass in Phil. Trans. XXIX. 535 Within it hath an Angle or sharp Ridge which runs all along the Middle, at the Top of the Hyperbole [of its beak]. |
Hence hyˈperbole v. intr. (nonce-wd.), to use hyperbole, to exaggerate.
| 1698 Locke Let. to E. Masham 29 Apr. in Fox Bourne Life (1876) II. xv. 461 Your poor solitary verger who suffers here under the deep winter of frost and snow: I do not hyperbole in the case. |